The Hollywood Liberal March 5, 2005 Did Hunter S. Thompson Really Kill Himself by H.L.

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March 5, 2005.

Did Hunter S. Thompson Really Kill Himself

by H.L.
I posted a story yesterday, from The Globe and Mail, titled "Alexander Pope In a Prose Convertible." In it the writer claimed that Hunter had called him the night before he died, and said that they were going to kill him. Hunter had apparently gotten hard evidence that the WTC was brought down by explosives, and not the planes. The Globe and Mail would only let you read the first paragraph of the story without registering and paying for the rest of it. I didn't bother. I did a google search of Thompson, and the writer of the story PAUL WILLIAM ROBERTS. The only thing I came up with was this Roberts guy mentioning fear and loathing in Las Vegas, in some other story he wrote. There was nothing linking the two, in any way. I concluded that this guy was a fan, and the story was bullshit.
Today I found out that in the second paragraph of Mr. Roberts story he admits that Hunter never called him. Just as I suspected; I did some checking around and found a galaxy of postings relating to the story. According to what I read:
Hunter was about to blow the cover off 9/11. that's why he was killed
Hunter was working on a story about the Franklin cover-up Child sex scandal at the White house in the 80's, and that's why he was killed.
Another story had Hunter involved in The Franklin cover-up. There was a brutal story of rape and murder, with young boys involved, at the end of the story they said the whole thing was made into a Snuff film, and Hunter was the director.
Another story said Hunter was not the director, but It was some guy who used his name.
Still another story said that Hunter had been taken out by Hilary Clinton because he was about to blow the lid off the Vince Foster Suicide/Murder.
They said the AP lied on the story, and said that Hunters wife Anita said she heard a muffled sound, (she was on the phone with him when the gun went off) when in the Aspen Times they had her saying that she heard no gun shot sound.
Okay so lets break it down and see what we come up with.
1. Would Hunter blow his brains out with his 6-year-old grand child in the house? (doesn't seem likely)
2. Would Hunter leave a note? (You would think so, but some other friend of his said it would be just like him to not leave a note.)
3. Was he planning suicide? (According to reports He had spoken of suicide, with greater frequency. It was causing big problems with the marriage for Anita. Also Hunters son Juan, said that he always knew that was how Hunter would go out. (but he was surprised with the timing.)
4. Was Hunter really working on some big story? (The truth is Hunter had not put out any original material in over at least a decade. The only thing he was doing was his sports column for ESPN, where he did trash Bush occasionally. But I don't think he was really working on any story.)
One thing that was puzzling to me was the way AP originally reported the Hunter death story, which I first found out about as a headline on Yahoo News:
Author Hunter Thompson Kills Himself.
Not, dies of an apparent suicide. Not commits suicide. Not under investigation. Just that he kills himself. No doubt, no question. If The "Government" had him killed, they would need to have their toadies "The Media" to help cover for them. So they would have to present the story in the least ambiguous terms. Hunter Thompson Kills Himself.
All this added together still leaves me without much of a conclusion; there are points on both sides. One person suggested that all they had to do was test Hunter's hands for powder, because he wouldn't put the gun in his own mouth and shoot, if that's what the Killers told him to do, would he? So if there is no powder residue on his hands then he was murdered.
But who will perform this test? can we trust them to give us the truth? Besides Hunter was shooting guns all the time anyway, he could have had residual powder residue on his hands from earlier that day if he was shooting. I wish we could get more answers about this, but for now it remains a mystery.

Follow Up 7/30/07 I just ran across this article for the first time in a while, and am obliged to 'finish the story' as it were. A couple of days after Hunter died a letter arrived at Owl Farm that Hunter had written and sent out before the fact. It was his suicide note titled "Football Season is Over." Also Ralph Steadman in his great new book "The Joke's Over" which chronicles his life with Hunter (Ralph did the illustrations in most of Hunter's books) states that Hunter would only do it while his son Juan was present because Juan was the only person Hunter trusted completly. So there you have it. I believe that Hunter really did commit suicide. HL

Remember the story yesterday about the Italian Journalist. Heres a follow up
Channel 24 News South Africa

US attacked Sgrena: companion

Excerpt: Rome - The companion of freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena on Saturday levelled serious accusations at US troops who fired at her convoy as it was nearing Baghdad airport, saying the shooting had been deliberate. "The Americans and Italians knew about (her) car coming," Pier Scolari said on leaving Rome's Celio military hospital where Sgrena is to undergo surgery following her return home. "They were 700m from the airport, which means that they had passed all checkpoints."

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